بررسی اهمیت رضایت گردشگران در ارائه خدمات گردشگری و عوامل مؤثر بر آن (مطالعه موردی: هتل های استان سمنان)

Introduction

The hotel industry is a service industry that is very important for creating competitive advantage, customer satisfaction, and loyalty. Satisfaction is the evaluation after a customer buys a product or service. A key motivation for placing more emphasis on customer satisfaction is that greater customer satisfaction leads to a stronger competitive advantage resulting in greater profits and market share, lower business costs, lower failure costs and new customer acquisition. Customer satisfaction is generally assumed to be an important factor for repeat purchases, positive word of mouth, and customer loyalty. It is natural for the hotel industry to invest considerable resources to satisfy their customers. Since customer satisfaction is a critical barometer for evaluating hotel performance, a deep understanding of the factors that contribute to satisfied and dissatisfied customers is crucial for hotel management. The contact between customers and employees can create positive or negative effects that may make or break the business. The productivity of employees depends on managers and those who motivate them to produce quality service. One of the biggest modern management challenges in the service industry is customer satisfaction and retention. Service quality and customer satisfaction are critical factors in creating differentiation and retaining customers; with the challenges among service industries, the importance of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty increases daily. In this regard, the present study aims to analyze the factors affecting the satisfaction of tourists in providing tourism services and has examined consumption excitement as an essential and influential key factor affecting tourist satisfaction.



Methodology

In terms of purpose, this research is functional and based on data collection, a descriptive survey. The study's statistical population included all domestic tourists who visited Semnan city. Due to a lack of access to detailed statistics of tourists entering Semnan during the research, 205 domestic tourists were selected by the available sampling method of the returned questionnaires; about 189 questionnaires were used. Also, the questionnaire was used to collect data, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze data.



Results and discussion

The results of the data analysis show that the customer satisfaction index model has a stronger effect on customer satisfaction by adding the excitement factor to the previous model. In this research, the only meaningful relationship between quality of service and customer satisfaction was not directly confirmed; this could be due to the difference in the studied society as well as the economic and cultural conditions governing the community. Tourist satisfaction has a positive and significant effect on loyalty, and the more tourists are satisfied, the less complaining their behavior will be. In other words, there is a negative relationship between customer satisfaction and tourists' complaining behavior. The more tourists are satisfied and the less they complain, the more they will be able to introduce the hotel where they stayed to their friends and acquaintances; In other words, word-of-mouth advertising leads to positive. Here, managers are encouraged to design a system that addresses customer and tourist complaints that the system addresses customer feedback and complaints so that they understand that hotel managers care about them. Complaints and criticisms increase tourists' satisfaction, ultimately, their loyalty. Hotel managers can use the model of customer satisfaction index in hotels instead of the overall customer satisfaction index to get a more accurate estimate of the level of customer satisfaction, get more information about repeat purchases, and create a competitive advantage. Also, Tourism is a major issue in the economic, social, and culture of all countries, and expanding it can draw a path to increase country revenues and reduce dependence on oil revenues, thereby providing an optimal path for achieving sustainable development and comprehensive. On the other hand, positive emotions have a greater effect on customer satisfaction than negative emotions. Despite this discussion, we can clearly see that many sources related to the relationship between customer satisfaction and consumer sentiment have shown that both positive and negative emotions have a very positive/negative effect on customer satisfaction. In addition, in in-service institutions, it is now widely accepted that emotion is one of the main factors in customer satisfaction. A literature review identifies consumer feelings as a prerequisite for customer satisfaction. Given the above, it is expected that the excitement of consumption, which is the result of the frontline staff's proper treatment of hotel tourists and the provision of quality services, will lead to a positive feeling in tourists or hotel customers and satisfy tourists from hotel service providers. The findings of this study and model retesting are consistent with studies conducted in this area; however, one of the hypotheses presented in this study is that the direct relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction has not been confirmed, and this factor is indirectly due to the role of consumer emotions. Perceptual value has led to greater satisfaction of tourists. It has been provided by providing services. This disapproval of the direct relationship could depend on the country's economic situation and other issues, which are mentioned in the next section.



Conclusion

Hotels are a segment of the hospitality industry that must adhere to their goal to fulfill customer needs and wants. It is inevitable for hotels, whose quality of products and service is highly dependent on the interaction between customers and their employees, to satisfy all customers. Service failure may occur, which makes customers angry and dissatisfied. Dissatisfied customers have various means to channel their complaints, while some take action privately. Dissatisfied customers may not complain directly to hotels because they probably feel uncomfortable due to the physical presence of service providers or management. The findings of the study specify that it is important for management in hotels to listen to customer concerns and take customer complaints seriously. Although their actions were done privately, they might have tremendous consequences on the restaurant’s bottom line.